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Armstrong Williams

post #1 of 13
1/12/05 at 11:54am
Thread Starter 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...williams_x.htm

I'm surprised there's no thread here about this.

This is one of the most disturbing things about BushCorp. I've read at all.

He bought a journalist for $240,000. Mostly because he was black. He paid him out of money in the Dept. of Education (which Dick Cheney, out of only 4 other Congressmen voted against creating.) Wow. We don't have money enough to educate American kids but we can buy a journalist to tell us how great No Child Left Behind Is.

Williams claims there are more but won't name them. Is he just the tip of the iceberg?

I never understood why "media" was liberal anyway, as it is run by large companies, and a company is a company. Republicans favor the rich, and media companies sure are rich. I think lately the media is finally moving to the right, where it should have been, by common sense. We are also seeing a lot of Yellow Journalism, jingoism to incite the masses, like in the Spanish-American War, and finding out the facts after the war is already started, (see There are no weapons thread, by our own Common Man.)

Even more startling, no one would ever have known if USA Today hadn't uncovered this with the Freedom of Information Act. Surprising that it was USA Today! Props to them.
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post #2 of 13
1/12/05 at 1:07pm
This is a disturbing practice. It makes one wonder how many "opinions" are for hire. To be fair, I have heard that it predates the Bush administration and was used often by Clinton. I need to find links to back that up.
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post #3 of 13
1/13/05 at 3:59pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Common Man
This is a disturbing practice. It makes one wonder how many "opinions" are for hire. To be fair, I have heard that it predates the Bush administration and was used often by Clinton. I need to find links to back that up.


Yes you do.
Without the need for difference or a need to always follow the herd breeds complacency, mediocrity, and a lack of imagination
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Without the need for difference or a need to always follow the herd breeds complacency, mediocrity, and a lack of imagination
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post #4 of 13
1/14/05 at 9:40pm
As usual the neolibs are either wrong or lying. I'm guessing a mixture of the two.

Williams' PR firm was hired to produce air time ads. Williams wasn't hired to be a shill for Bush. Maybe Williams was confused about what he was being paid to do but that's on him.


http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases.../01132005.html

Anyway back to the lies and distortions.
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post #5 of 13
1/14/05 at 10:02pm
Then apparently USA Today is lying.

Quote:
The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.
...
The contract, detailed in documents obtained by USA TODAY through a Freedom of Information Act request, also shows that the Education Department, through the Ketchum public relations firm, arranged with Williams to use contacts with America's Black Forum, a group of black broadcast journalists, "to encourage the producers to periodically address" NCLB. He persuaded radio and TV personality Steve Harvey to invite Paige onto his show twice. Harvey's manager, Rushion McDonald, confirmed the appearances.

USA Today quotes the contract they obtained from a FOIA request, and it seems to me to clearly involve more than just airing some ads. He was personally involved, in the course of his job as a commentator, in promoting this.

Williams himself offered this apology, but he explains the problem like this:

Quote:
In 2003, I agreed to run a paid ad on my syndicated television show, promoting the Department of Educations No Child Left Behind Act. I subsequently used my column space to support that legislation. This represents an obvious conflict of interests.

That seems to be a denial that he was paid for the content of his commentary. I think it would be interesting to see the actual contract.

The Ed dept. may have violated the law here, so I'm not sure I'd trust their press release when they're currently under investigation by the FCC.
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post #6 of 13
1/14/05 at 11:28pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Scott
Maybe Williams was confused about what he was being paid to do but that's on him.


Oh I don't think so. When somebody hires you to water their flowers you don't 'get confused' and screw their daughter.

And when that person is The President and on top of that, he's getting $260,000, you can be god damn sure he could recite in his sleep exactly what he was hired for.
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post #7 of 13
1/15/05 at 9:53am
Quote:
Originally posted by Gene Clean
Oh I don't think so. When somebody hires you to water their flowers you don't 'get confused' and screw their daughter.

Is that what I keep doing wrong?

Maybe I should pay DailyKos to help Armstrong Williams out.

Nick

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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post #8 of 13
1/15/05 at 1:41pm
Quote:
Originally posted by trumptman
Is that what I keep doing wrong?

Maybe I should pay DailyKos to help Armstrong Williams out.

Nick

Nick, as you know perfectly well, Kos was hired by the Dean campaign as an internet consultant.

At which time he posted a prominent disclaimer on his blog.

So, repeat after me: Kos, private money, full disclosure. Williams: tax-payers money, secret.

This compulsion to match every misdeed by the Bush administration by a purported "equal and negating" crime on the left has led to rampant dishonesty amongst your peoples, Nick. Any child could articulate the difference between these two examples, I'm sure you can too.

But again, (as is so often the case with the rhetoric of the right these days) the intent seems to merely muddy the waters with a kind of "plausible equivalence", maybe in the hopes that the people in the cheap seats will come away with the impression that "everybody does it" and kind of give up on keeping track.

But don't you think that that kind of cynicism actually does harm to the nation's ability to sort things out?
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post #9 of 13
1/15/05 at 3:38pm
Thread Starter 
Well you two are just complete knee-jerks. Even Common Man has disavowed this slimester. Hey, it happens. People get greedy. This guy was paid off to be biased. You can't defend this guy, there is nothing to defend.

I say he give the US its damn money back, or he gets jail time.
"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch
"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox
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"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch
"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox
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post #10 of 13
1/15/05 at 7:23pm
Quote:
Originally posted by addabox
Nick, as you know perfectly well, Kos was hired by the Dean campaign as an internet consultant.

At which time he posted a prominent disclaimer on his blog.

So, repeat after me: Kos, private money, full disclosure. Williams: tax-payers money, secret.

This compulsion to match every misdeed by the Bush administration by a purported "equal and negating" crime on the left has led to rampant dishonesty amongst your peoples, Nick. Any child could articulate the difference between these two examples, I'm sure you can too.

But again, (as is so often the case with the rhetoric of the right these days) the intent seems to merely muddy the waters with a kind of "plausible equivalence", maybe in the hopes that the people in the cheap seats will come away with the impression that "everybody does it" and kind of give up on keeping track.

But don't you think that that kind of cynicism actually does harm to the nation's ability to sort things out?

It's called a joke adda. Note the "assertion" that the reply was responding to and then try some decaf.

Nick

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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post #11 of 13
1/15/05 at 7:29pm
Quote:
Originally posted by trumptman
It's called a joke adda. Note the "assertion" that the reply was responding to and then try some decaf.

Nick

NO! NO DECAF FOR ME! I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE! BEES! IN MY HEAD!
They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.
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They spoke of the sayings and doings of their commander, the grand duke, and told stories of his kindness and irascibility.
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post #12 of 13
1/16/05 at 1:32pm
Thread Starter 
The old Scott "it's a joke" trick.
"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch
"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox
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"Overpopulation and climate change are serious shit." Gilsch
"I was really curious how they had managed such fine granularity of alienation." addabox
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post #13 of 13
1/16/05 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Aquatic
Well you two are just complete knee-jerks. Even Common Man has disavowed this slimester. Hey, it happens. People get greedy. This guy was paid off to be biased. You can't defend this guy, there is nothing to defend.

I say he give the US its damn money back, or he gets jail time.

I didn't defend him. All I did was make a joke. I didn't quote the entire post because I wasn't replying to the entire post. He made a cute analogy and I personalized it using myself to have some fun.

The little crack about Kos didn't claim that Kos was bad in the instance for Dean, just that he can be hired to post positive comments about parties in his blog. Williams needs a little positive press right now and could pay for it via Kos.

Of course why am I explaining humor to someone who takes themselves so seriously they can't laugh at anything.

Nick

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -George Orwell

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